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Meal Patterns and Menu Cycles

April 2025

Welcome to Meal Patterns and Menu Cycles. This brief module is offered as a complement to Early Care and Education college courses that cover health, safety and nutrition. It is not meant to be exhaustive but simply to highlight important best practices and key information as well as provide you with additional resources.

�Let’s start with an explanation of what these two things are.

�“Meal patterns” are a plan for how often children need to be offered food during the day in child care settings, which food groups they should be offered and what the serving sizes should be. Children younger than six years old need to be offered a meal or snack every two to three hours while in care. For a full day of care, this means children need to be offered at least one meal and two snacks or two meals and one snack.

�A variety of foods from all food groups should be offered during meals and snacks. Snacks are as important as meals, as they are a significant part of a child’s daily nutrition. So, each snack should include nutrient-dense foods from two to three food groups.

�It may seem a little overwhelming to try and plan multiple meals and snacks each day that feature healthy foods from all the food groups. This is where menu cycles can be very helpful. A menu cycle is a way for child care programs to plan menus of nutritious meals and snacks for several weeks and then cycle or repeat these menus over time to avoid planning from scratch every week.

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CACFP

Whether or not you participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), you are required by state licensing regulations to follow the meal patterns set out by the USDA for CACFP
There are different meal patterns for infants than toddlers and preschoolers
The difference between toddlers and preschoolers is the portion size

Before we jump into the specifics of the recommended meal patterns, we want to share some background information on the Child and Adult Care Food Program, also called CACFP or food program. It is a national reimbursement program that is administered by each state. It provides reimbursement for healthy meals and snacks served in child care programs (both home- and center-based), afterschool programs, emergency and homeless shelters, adult day care centers and similar programs.

�Licensed child care centers and family child care homes that are serving meals are required to follow the CACFP meal patterns, even if you do not participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and even if you do not serve meals. Families who send in meals should know about the meal pattern and be encouraged to follow it. That’s why it’s important for you to know the differences between the meal patterns for infants, ages birth through eleven months, which is much different from the meal pattern for toddlers and preschoolers.

�And also the portion sizes as those are different for toddlers and preschoolers.

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Infant �Meal Patterns

Meal	Birth to 5 months	6 to 11 months
Breakfast	4-6 fl oz human milk or formula	6-8 fl oz human milk or formula and 0-4 Tbsp infant cereal, meat, fish, poultry, whole eggs, cooked dry beans or peas; or 0-2 oz cheese; or 0-4 oz cottage cheese; or 0-4 oz yogurt, or a combination and 0-2 Tbsp fruits or vegetables or both
Lunch/Dinner	4-6 fl oz human milk or formula	6-8 fl oz human milk or formula and 0-4 Tbsp infant cereal, meat, fish, poultry, whole eggs, cooked dry beans or peas; or 0-2 oz cheese; or 0-4 oz cottage cheese; or 0-4 oz yogurt, or a combination and 0-2 Tbsp fruits or vegetables or both
Snack	4-6 fl oz human milk or formula	2-4 fl oz human milk or formula and 0-½ slice bread, tortilla, or 0-2 crackers or 0-4 Tbsp infant cereal or ready to eat cereal and 0-2 Tbsp fruits or vegetables or both2-4 fl oz human milk or formula and 0-½ slice bread, tortilla, or 0-2 crackers or 0-4 Tbsp infant cereal or ready to eat cereal and 0-2 Tbsp fruits or vegetables or both

This tables show the required meal patterns for the different infant age groups and the portion sizes that are age-appropriate for each. Infants birth through 5 months old should be fed human milk or infant formula, and as seen in the third column, should continue to be included as complementary foods are offered through the first year of life. And we should note that health professionals strongly recommend continuing to provide breastmilk to toddlers, through two years and beyond.

�Recommendations also include introducing solid foods, such as iron-fortified cereal, fruits, vegetables and meats, after age 6 months or when developmentally appropriate for the individual child.

�Young Infants

Infants from birth through five months of age should only be offered breastmilk or formula. Offer 4-6 ounces per meal or snack.

�Breastfeeding

Providers should encourage and support breastfeeding. If your program is participating in the CACFP, the program can be reimbursed for serving breast milk from a bottle or cup. Also, although it is not shown on this chart, when a mom directly breastfeeds her child who is over 12 months of age on-site at the child care program, that can also be credited as part of a meal for CACFP reimbursement.

�Serving Sizes for Older Infants

Minimum serving sizes of solid foods are listed as ranges for infants because not all babies are ready to eat solid foods at the same age. A baby that has not yet started solid foods would receive a serving size of 0 tablespoons. A baby that has just started eating solids may receive 1 tablespoon. Once a baby has been regularly eating solid food, they would receive 2 tablespoons. In all of these instances, the meal would be reimbursable. Also, once solid foods have been introduced to an infant, then solid foods must be offered at every meal or snack.

�Snacks and Meals for Older Infants

Infant meal patterns for ages six through 11 months offer nutritious meals and snacks. For snacks, the CACFP requires breastmilk or formula; a vegetable, fruit, or both; and a grain such as bread or crackers. Ready-to-eat cereals are also allowed as snacks. Juice and processed cheese foods (such as cream cheese, Velveeta, CheeseWiz or cheese spread) are not allowed to be served at any time.

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Toddler�and Preschool�

You could serve:

Snacks only in morning and/or afternoon

Two snacks and one meal

Two meals and one snack

According to licensing regulations all meals and snacks provided by the center must meet current CACFP meal pattern guidance and be offered at suitable intervals not more than three hours apart. Children who are on the premises for more than four hours (day or evening) must be offered a meal. Depending on how long the child remains on site at your program, there are different requirements for the number and type of meals and snacks that must be provided.

�We strongly recommend that you refer back to licensing regulations to confirm which meals and or snacks must be provided, either by you or by families for your program. As a reminder, providers serving meals must offer the recommended serving sizes for each food group and child age. In order to meet two thirds of the daily nutritional requirements in the CACFP, providers must serve meals and snacks that are balanced and meet the specific food and meal component requirements.

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Toddler�and Preschool Meal Patterns�

Meal	Component	1 to 2 years	3 to 5 years
Breakfast (serve milk, grains*, vegetables or fruit)	Milk Vegetables, Fruit or Both Grains	½ cup ¼ cup ½ oz eq	¾ cup ½ cup ½ oz eq
Lunch/Dinner (serve all five components)	Milk Meat and Meat Alternate Vegetables Fruit Grains	½ cup 1 oz ⅛ cup ⅛ cup ½ oz eq	¾ cup 1 ½ oz ¼ cup �¼ cup ½ oz eq

To assist caregivers and families in feeding older children, the toddlers and preschoolers meal pattern can help with providing age-appropriate serving sizes for children up to age five.

�To be reimbursed through CACFP, these meal patterns must meet specific food component requirements as well as the serving sizes. The first column shows the meal type, breakfast, lunch/dinner and snack, and the second column lists the meal components for each meal. You can see that each meal must include fluid milk, which is whole milk for children one to two years old, and low-fat (1%) or fat-free (skim milk) milk for children two years and older. No flavored milk is allowed.

�For Breakfast, three food components are required. You have a choice to serve a fruit, a vegetable or both. For Lunch and Dinner meals, all five components are required in order to be in compliance and reimbursed by CACFP. Don’t worry if this seems complicated, there are many resources to help you understand and follow the specifics of the meal patterns, including how specific foods fit into each category, on the USDA website.

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School Aged�Meal Patterns�

Meal	Component	6 to 12 years
Breakfast (serve milk, grains*, vegetables or fruit)	Milk Vegetables, Fruit or Both Grains	1 cup ½ cup 1 oz eq
Lunch/Dinner (serve all five components)	Milk Meat and Meat Alternate Vegetables Fruit Grains	1 cup 2 oz ½ cup ¼ cup 1 oz eq

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Snack Meal Patterns

Meal	Component	1 to 2 years	3 to 5 years	6 to 12 years
Snack (serve two of the five components)	Milk Meat and Meat Alternate Vegetables Fruit Grains	½ cup ½ oz ½ cup ½ cup ½ oz eq	½ cup ½ oz ½ cup ½ cup ½ oz eq	1 cup 1 oz ¾ cup ¾ cup 1 oz eq

Understanding the snack meal pattern may be helpful to families and child care providers in offering a nutritious snack any time of day. Many providers give only snack to the children in their care, and many parents are looking for ways to serve a healthy snack. A snack by CACFP reimbursement standards requires two food components, for example, milk and grain or a fruit and grain. To ensure the snacks offered are CACFP creditable and match the nutritional requirements for the age group being served, providers must follow the CACFP requirements and meal patterns. For the most current CACFP guidelines refer to the list of Non-creditable Foods for Child Care Programs in CACFP and more detailed guidance on creditable cereals, crackers and whole grains found on the Colorado CACFP website and the USDA CACFP website. Both are linked on the resources slide at the end. ��

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Snack Ideas

Yogurt and fruit
Vegetables and healthy dip with milk
Homemade fruit muffin with milk
Vegetables and cheese
Crackers and cheese
Cereal and milk
Cottage cheese and fruit
Crackers and 100% fruit juice
Sun butter and crackers
Tortilla roll-ups
Tortilla chips with salsa and vegetables

In general, when someone mentions the word “snack”, people often think of foods like cookies, potato chips, and soda. For the health of young children, we want you to think of snacks as fresh fruit and thinly sliced carrot sticks. Here are some great examples of healthy snacks that include two food groups and would meet the requirements for the CACFP meal pattern.

�Let’s look at the first bullet point, Yogurt and Fruit. You might wonder why not just serve the ready to eat yogurt with fruit on the bottom or mixed in? Besides those yogurts often being high in added sugar, the amount of fruit they contain varies widely. In order to meet the reimbursable snack requirements, there must be two meal components served in the appropriate serving size. A fruited yogurt may not contain the appropriate serving size of fruit to count as a separate component for the meal pattern.

�Other snack ideas are crackers and cheese, sun butter and crackers and the others mentioned here.

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Menu Requirements

Iron fortified infant formula or human milk is served to children under 1 year, whole milk is served to children between 1-2 years; 1% or skim milk is served to children 2 years and older
Fruit juice (100% only) may not be served no more than twice per week

Juice may count toward the fruit or vegetable component only once per day

Milk and juice must be pasteurized
Water must be available at all times and cannot be substituted for milk during meals

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Menu Requirements

Grain-based desserts cannot credit towards the grain component.
At least one serving of grains per day must be whole grain rich
Processed meats are limited to once per week
All foods made from scratch should have a standardized recipe
Effective October 1, 2025:

Breakfast cereals must contain no more than 6 grams of added sugar per dry ounce
Yogurt must contain no more than 12 grams of added sugars per 6 ounces

A grain-based dessert cannot count toward the grain component. At least once per day a whole grain-rich item must be served. Additional guidance to assist providers in identifying Whole Grain-Rich Foods for CACFP using the ingredient lists can be found on the USDA CACFP website linked in the resources at the end.

Sugar is one ingredient that parents and caregivers should avoid overfeeding children in this age group. When it comes to sugar, the CACFP requirements for cereal and yogurt are very specific.

�The Colorado Healthier Meals Initiative limits certain processed meats to once per week or less. These meats are high in fat and sodium, and contain ingredients other than meat. Examples of processed meats that are limited include:

Breaded meat products like chicken nuggets, fish sticks, and chicken patties
Sausages like Italian sausage, Polish sausage, and Vienna sausages
Pepperoni, bologna, and salami
Hot dogs, frankfurters, and corn dogs

�To count towards the meal pattern, foods cooked from scratch must have a standardized recipe. The link to the worksheet provided can assist providers in making sure their homemade blueberry muffin, for example, contains the age-appropriate serving size and amount of fruit, as well as whole grain content if looking to count as the whole grain item, in order to be counted towards a reimbursable snack.

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Best Practices

Limit oils and avoid trans fats, saturated fats and fried foods
Avoid fried meats
Serve low-fat yogurt and cottage cheese to children ages 2 and older
Offer juice only during meal times

Serve 4-6 oz juice for children ages 1-6 years
Serve 8-12 oz juce for children ages 7-12 years

Limit salty foods – both added salt and sodium in processed foods

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Menu Cycles

Three weeks or longer
Variety of foods
Time saving
Stress reducing

It may seem a little overwhelming to try and plan multiple meals and snacks each day that feature healthy foods from all the food groups. This is where menu cycles can be very helpful. A menu cycle is a way for child care programs to plan menus of nutritious meals and snacks for several weeks, and then cycle or repeat these menus over time to avoid planning from scratch every week.

�It is important to rotate or cycle the menus of meals and snacks that children are served in child care settings, rather than serving them the same foods over and over again. A three week or longer menu cycle is recommended. It is also recommended to modify the menu cycle with seasonal changes and new foods.

�There are many menu planning resources available to child care programs to help providers choose and serve a variety of healthy, child-friendly foods. For example, the Team Nutrition CACFP Menu Planning Guide has sample menus programs can use or adapt.

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Resources and References

Caring for Our Children National Standards: https://nrckids.org/CFOC
Institute of Child Nutrition. Child and Adult Care Food Programs, CACFP Meal Pattern Resources: https://theicn.org/cacfp/
USDA, Food and Nutrition Service. CACFP Worksheets (many topics covered): https://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/meal-pattern-training-worksheets-cacfp
USDA, Food and Nutrition Service. Child and Adult Care Food Program Title 7 CFR 226: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-7/subtitle-B/chapter-II/subchapter-A/part-226
For more information on CACFP requirements please visit: https://cdphe.colorado.gov/CACFP �

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Thank you

Made possible with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention